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Microsoft sets itself carbon neutrality goal

Company will offset all emissions by 2013

Microsoft has set 2013 as its target date for achieving carbon neutrality in its day-to-day operations.

The company said that it was aiming to achieve the operational landmark by the start of its fiscal year, currently set for 1 July.

At that point, the company hopes to achieve carbon neutrality in its manufacturing facilities, research and development labs as well as corporate air travel.

Microsoft chief operating officer Kevin Turner said that the carbon neutrality goal was part of a larger effort by the company to minimise its environmental footprint.

Other components in the campaign include the implementation of more efficient building designs and an educational campaign aimed at cutting power consumption in datacentres.

"Working on the issues of energy use and environmental change provides another opportunity to make a difference in the world," Turner said in a company blog post.

"And it is also an opportunity to promote positive change, as the world transitions to new ways of using energy and managing natural resources."

Microsoft is not the first vendor to announce plans for carbon neutrality.

Hardware giant Dell announced that it had achieved the milestone in 2008, the same year Google and Yahoo met their own goals.

The company's announcement arrives as researchers have unveiled promising new technologies in the eco-friendly and low-energy server spaces.

Researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey have developed management tools which allow datacentre deployments to run on solar energy for low-power tasks and minimise the use of polluting and non-renewable power sources.